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major reference

Classical mechanics deals with the motion of bodies under the influence of forces or with the equilibrium of bodies when all forces are balanced. The subject may be thought of as the elaboration and application of basic postulates first enunciated by Isaac Newton in his
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), commonly known as the
Principia. These postulates, called...

astrology

In the West, however, Newtonian physics and Enlightenment rationalism largely eradicated the widespread belief in astrology, yet Western astrology is far from dead, as demonstrated by the strong popular following it gained in the 1960s. There were even attempts to reestablish a firm theoretical basis for it, notably by the French psychologist Michel Gauquelin in his
The...

comparison with quantum mechanics

...that the quantum mechanical theory on which it was based must be incomplete. They concluded that the correct theory would contain some hidden variable feature that would restore the determinism of classical physics.

mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering has evolved from the practice by the mechanic of an art based largely on trial and error to the application by the professional engineer of the scientific method in research, design, and production. The demand for increased efficiency is continually raising the quality of work expected from a mechanical engineer and requiring a higher degree of education and training.

philosophical aspects

The Newtonian doctrine according to which space and time are absolute or substantive realities had been incisively criticized by the 17th-century rationalist Gottfried Leibniz and was subjected by Mach to even more searching scrutiny. While Leibniz had already paved the way for the conception of space and time as exclusively a matter of...

The rate at which the position of a particle is changing at a particular time, as time flows forward, is called the velocity of the particle at that time. The rate at which the velocity of a particle is changing at a particular time, as time flows forward, is called the acceleration of the particle at that time. The Newtonian conception stipulates that force, which acts to maintain or alter the...

physical sciences

...of 1687, laid down in the form of his laws of motion, together with other axioms and postulates, the rules to follow in analyzing the motion of bodies interacting among themselves. This theory of
classical mechanics is described in detail in the article mechanics, but some general comments may be offered here. For the present purpose, it seems sufficient to consider only bodies moving along a...

Mechanics was one of the most highly developed sciences pursued in the Middle Ages. Operating within a fundamentally Aristotelian framework, medieval physicists criticized and attempted to improve many aspects of Aristotle’s physics.

The battle for Copernicanism was fought in the realm of mechanics as well as astronomy. The Ptolemaic–Aristotelian system stood or fell as a monolith, and it rested on the idea of Earth’s fixity at the centre of the cosmos. Removing Earth from the centre destroyed the doctrine of natural motion and place, and circular motion of Earth was incompatible with Aristotelian physics.

study of

chaos

In
classical mechanics the behaviour of a dynamical system can be described geometrically as motion on an “attractor.” The mathematics of
classical mechanics effectively recognized three types of attractor: single points (characterizing steady states), closed loops (periodic cycles), and tori (combinations of several cycles). In the 1960s a new class of “strange...

light

The Newtonian view of the universe may be described as a mechanistic interpretation. All components of the universe, small or large, obey the laws of mechanics, and all phenomena are in the last analysis based on matter in motion. A conceptual difficulty in Newtonian mechanics, however, is the way in which the gravitational force between two massive objects acts over a distance across empty...

time

...apparent, and common time” as measured by the apparent motions of the fixed stars, as well as by terrestrial clocks. His absolute time was an ideal scale of time that made the laws of mechanics simpler, and its discrepancy with apparent time was attributed to such things as irregularities in the motion of the Earth. Insofar as these motions were explained by Newton’s mechanics (or...

work of

Galileo

...that would refute the core of Aristotelian dynamics. Most notably, he formulated the concept that would eventually lead (in the hands of René Descartes) to the so-called first law of mechanics—namely, that a body in motion, freed from friction and from all other forces, would move, not in a circle, but in a straight line at uniform speed. The frame of reference for making...

Helmholtz

...of the world from a few basic principles. Helmholtz opposed this view by insisting that all knowledge came through the senses. Furthermore, all science could and should be reduced to the laws of
classical mechanics, which, in his view, encompassed matter, force, and, later, energy, as the whole of reality.

Lagrange

...coordinates that are necessary for the specifications of a system of a finite number of particles, or “generalized coordinates.” It also led to the so-called Lagrangian equations for a classical mechanical system in which the kinetic energy of the system is related to the generalized coordinates, the corresponding generalized forces, and the time. The book was typically analytic;...

Leibniz

...found in the concept of extension, it can no longer be defined by simple local movement; it must be the result of a force. In criticizing the Cartesian formulation of the laws of motion, known as mechanics, Leibniz became, in 1676, the founder of a new formulation, known as dynamics, which substituted kinetic energy for the conservation of movement. At the same time, beginning with the...

Leonardo da Vinci

According to Leonardo’s observations, the study of mechanics, with which he became quite familiar as an architect and engineer, also reflected the workings of nature. Throughout his life Leonardo was an inventive builder; he thoroughly understood the principles of mechanics of his time and contributed in many ways to advancing them. The two Madrid notebooks deal extensively with his theory of...